27 July 2007
Twelve proposals for revitalising one of the government's low-cost home ownership schemes have reached the final stages of a competition set up by Gordon Brown.
The competition, launched in March when Brown was still chancellor, aims to make Open Market Homebuy more attractive to people on low incomes.
The scheme is already backed by four private lenders that offer mortgages worth 75% of the home and split the cost of equity loans with the government.
Some of the competition finalists are proposing that first-time buyers should be able to purchase as little as 50% outright, while others want the range of shared equity products to be simplified.
The bidders, which include housing associations, banks and developers, were announced on July 18 and are now being invited to submit firm proposals to the Housing Corporation.
A recent report by the Chartered Institute of Housing suggested that prospective buyers were put off low-cost home ownership by the complexity of the different Homebuy schemes. It urged social landlords to balance the desire to be innovative with the need for simplicity.
The report, Whose house is it anyway?, commissioned by the corporation, also said tenants buying shares in their homes would need a safety net in case interest rates rise.
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